NEW ORLEANS - Charter Communications, which is currently testing a variety of uses cases of CBRS, could potentially be ready to go to market around the end of next year with an application that enables cost-effective deployment of fixed network services in rural areas.

So said Craig Cowden, senior VP of wireless tech Charter, speaking at a Light Reading-sponsored morning event this morning (Oct. 2) at the SCTE-ISBE Cable-Tec Expo convention.

Charter is currently testing the use of Citizens Broadband Radio Service in North Carolina—a market, Cowden said was selected on purpose "because we wanted a worst-case scenario for RF distribution.”

The MSO, he noted, is looking to extend fixed wireless services within the rural buffers of its footprint, but beyond the feasible reach of its hybrid fiber-coaxial network. With the FCC having just green-lit initial commercial deployment of CBRS, Charter is looking to deliver the minimum broadband speed specifications—25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps—while also offering customers in the newly claimed fixed wireless terrain triple-play services.

Assuming successful testing, Corden said initial CBRS-based fixed wireless services could start rolling out around the end of 2020.

Notably, Charter recently settled with the state of New York State, after the state sued the cable company for not fulfilling a merger-related promise to bring rural broadband to the region.

Speaking at an investor event last month, chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said Charter is currently building out some low-density broadband in New York. “We find that it’s economic. There may be an opportunity to accelerate low-density construction on the fringes of our business going forward.”

Separately, Charter is also testing CBRS in New York and Los Angeles as a means of shifting some cellular network usage for its Spectrum Mobile product off the Verizon MVNO. The scheme Charter is testing uses dual-SIMM phones that can switch between MVNO cellular and Charter’s own CBRS-based LTE network.

“We see targeted opportunities for mobile offload,” he said. “Our data shows that something like 85% of outdoor mobile traffic takes place in 15% of geographic locations.”

NEW ORLEANS - Centennial, Colorado-based cable video tech provider Evolution Digital used the Cable-Tec Expo event today to announce its latest customer win, the deployment of its eStream 4K set-top in Midcontinent Communications’ new IPTV service, which is slated to debut early next year.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Midco will deploy the Android TV-powered eStream 4K devices, along with a TiVo user interface, giving users of the managed network service access to OTT apps in the Google Play Store. The cable operator will also use Evolution Digital’s Device Manager (eDM), a software platform that provides management, control, monitoring and analytics of devices, as well as the ability to deploy software, firmware and security updates to customer devices.

In July, it was reported that Buckeye Broadband and MaxxSouth, two cable operators owned by Toledo, Ohio-based Block Communications, have deployed app-based video services powered by Evolution Digital’s full IP-based platform.

This followed a similar deployment by Missouri’s Vast Broadband, which Evolution announced in June.

“As Android TV is becoming pay-TV providers’ chosen ecosystem, Evolution Digital provides the necessary ongoing elements that come with building, certifying and maintaining Android TV in-production, while helping operators, like Midco, build a strong foundation for current and future innovation to outcompete in the market for many years to come,” said Marc Cohen, executive VP of sales and marketing for Evolution Digital, in a statement.

Added Bill Chatwell, Midco’s director of video systems: “As we begin to make a major migration to cloud-based video, we trust Evolution Digital’s expertise to help lead us in to the future of streaming, providing our customers an unparalleled TV service at scale.”

NEW ORLEANS - Nine months after the cable industry introduced its big catch phrase, “10G,” at CES in January, the man who coined that term himself, NCTA President and CEO Michael Powell, declared it to be a successful piece of marketing.

“It really is our new battle flag,” Powell said on stage of the opening session of this year’s Cable-Tec Expo event this morning. “It has restored in the minds of policy makers and the American public the importance of fixed networks, in addition to wireless networks.”

In short, Powell explained, the term has succeeded in its objective—whenever the wireless industry’s ubiquitous 5G calling card gets placed somewhere, there is an increasing awareness that the cable industry is also working on fixed networks that will deliver 10 gigabit-per-second symmetrical speeds.

However, during the opening session of the Society of Cable Telecommunications’ big annual trade event, itself titled "Raising the Bar," the question often came to mind, “When will we actually need 10 Gbps services?

After all, cable technologists entered this year’s expo having successfully festooned around 90% of the U.S. with DOCSIS 3.1-enabled 1 Gbps services. But none of the big cable companies are as of yet disclosing how many customers are actually using their pricy 1-gig services.

Certainly, the usual cadre of top-level cable technology engineers—which included Liberty Global’s Bill Warga, Comcast’s Tony Werner, CableLabs’ Phil McKinney and Charter’s Tom Adams—worked hard to sell the main convention hall ball room that there will soon come a day when applications like holographic display, virtual reality and autonomous cars will drive demand for much, much faster internet.

Adams, who serves as executive VP of field operations for Charter and will chair next year’s Cable-Tec Expo event, recalled that when he joined Charter seven years ago, the average internet speed threshold was around 15-30 Mbps. The growth of video streaming has increased that threshold to 200 Mbps - 1 Gbps, he noted.

Comcast’s top technologists, Werner, noted that 4K/HDR displays take up around 25 Mbps of bandwidth to play. “And in the next 24 to 36 months, i think will see another change in display technology, at least in one room of the house, that will consume a lot of bandwidth.”

Werner specifically highlighted the work of Light Field Lab, a start-up specializing in holograms that recently secured $28 million in funding from investors including Comcast.

Werner also noted that Comcast is well on its way to virtualizing its HFC networks, and has already converted some of its infrastructure to Remote PHY. However, at this point, the network infrastructure Comcast has upgraded to virtualization and Distributed Access Architecture is only capable of symmetrical 1-gig service

Later, noted inventor Dean Kamen took the stage to discuss with CableLabs chief McKinney all the aging-in-place and other bandwidth-intensive healthcare applications that will also soon require very high speeds and very low latency.

The two-and-a-half-hour session was wrapped by Preetha Vijayakumar, VP of enterprise network and communications services for FedEx. Citing all the bandwidth-intensive needs of the shipping industry, she noted, “It's my hope that we will get to the point where communications is cheap and ubiquitous, all across America.”

Vijayakumar left the stage declaring, “That’s the promise of 5G!”

NEW ORLEANS - Mattoon, Illinois-based Consolidated Communications has become the latest cable operator to sign onto MobiTV’s full IP video solution, MobiTV Connect.

The IPTV platform will service as the backbone of Consoidated’s CCiTV-branded video service, delivering content from nearly 200 local broadcast and national cable channels. Network brands in the fold include A+E, Crown Media Family, Disney and ESPN Media, FOX, HBO, Turner and Viacom.

The new service initially is available to subscribers in southern Maine with plans to expand service later this year.

The announcement was made from the Cable-Tec Expo event in New Orleans.

Related: MobiTV Adds $50M Funding Round

After launching its MobiTV Connect IPTV product nearly two years ago, MobiTV has around 90 U.S. pay TV partners, about half of which have fully deployed its end-to-end IP-based solution. Windstream and Fidelity Communications are its biggest clients to date.

MobiTV Connect is SaaS-based platform that allows for real-time enablement of new technologies, such as 4K, cloud DVR and voice control. The app-based system is designed to leverage off-the-shelf streaming hardware, like Roku and Amazon Fire TV, dispensing with expensive set-top rollouts.

"Partnering with MOBITV allows us to deliver a cost-effective next-generation TV service and enhanced user experience,” said Rob Koester, VP of consumer product management at Consolidated Communications, in a statement. “Consolidated also benefits from MobiTV’s IP delivery, which reduces the capital expense associated with additional hardware in the home and the ability to transition to the service without a major rip-and-replace installation.”

Added Charlie Nooney, CEO and chairman of MobiTV. “The customizable MobiTV Connect platform, combined with the fiber-optic network and customer service from Consolidated Communications, makes for a powerful app-based TV solution that prioritizes the user experience.”

NEW ORLEANS - Hoboken broadband analytics company OpenValut said it has carved out an “extension and enhancement” of its deal with Englewood, Colorado cable operator WideOpenWest (WOW).

The vendor doesn’t disclose exactly what the expansion of the relationship entails—only that it’s providing the operator with its operations, analytics and policy tools so that it can gather data on how WOW’s 800,000 customers use the internet … all in an “anonymized” way, of course.

“OpenVault’s tools provide aggregated and anonymized insight into WOW customers’ broadband habits and usage, which allows us to better manage our network so we can best deliver our innovative products and services to our customers,” said Blair Day, senior VP of product and network engineering for WOW. “As we continue to work together, OpenVault’s market insights will help us continue to understand and respond to our customers’ desires to use broadband services where they want, when they want and how they want.”

“WOW’s commitment to service quality has resulted in a robust broadband offering that continues to attract new subscribers,” added Mark Trudeau, founder and CEO of OpenVault. “We look forward to continuing and expanding our partnership with them to forecast future trends, pro-actively eliminate unexpected impairments and expedite service delivery.”

Harmonic announced a version of its CableOS virtualized software solution that includes containerized DOCSIS CMTS and PON applications, enabling converged delivery of broadband-over-cable and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) services.

The San Jose, California-based technology company made the announcement entering the Cable-Tec Expo event in New Orleans.

The debut of the new version comes as Harmonic’s broadband service provider clients are weighing myriad technology options, including virtualized Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) and Distributed Access Architecture (DAA), as well as fiber-deep strategies that enable standards like Full Duplex DOCSIS.

In fact, as some operators look at options like fiber-deep, the prospect of taking fiber all the way to the residence comes to mind.

“A lot of the operators out there are going fiber-deep. The next transition is go FTTH. What we’re trying to say is, here’s a platform for you to bet on all those infrastructure plans,” said Asaf Matatyaou, VP of solutions and product management for Harmonic’s cable edge business.

CableOS uses a cloud-native platform to support converged DOCSIS CMTS and FTTH Passive Optional Network (PON) Optical Line Termination (OLT) applications, and additional containerized access applications such as DOCSIS 4.0 in the future.

The new version includes both 10G EPON and 10G XGS-PON, as is a remote CableOS OLT module that has the same footprint as Harmonic’s Pebble Remote PHY device. Through a single CableOS instance running in a centralized data center, operators can simultaneously deliver Remote PHY DOCSIS and Remote OLT FTTH services, dramatically simplifying the operational complexity of managing and scaling multiple broadband access applications.

Harmonic last week announced that South Carolina operator Comporium will use CableOS in a new DAA configuration. Over the summer, the tech vendor announced a multi-year, $175 million deal with Comcast for the solution, as well as a separate $55 million arrangement with a European client widely believed to be Liberty Global.